Lost: The Alternate Version

[Joe Washington]

Posting the Redoing Lost thread had me thinking about doing an AU version of Lost. So here is a part of it for your viewing pleasure.


SEASON ONE

• In the series premiere, Oceanic 815 crashes. Jack along with a group of people survive the crash and make camp.
• The Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle doesn’t exist. Yes, Sawyer finds Kate attractive and bonds her partially because of her own criminal past but he is more drawn to Juliet who is among the passengers of the plane and the survivors under Jack’s leadership. In this version of Lost, Juliet isn’t a fertility doctor. Though she does have a medical degree, she is also a brilliant scientist with the mind of Daniel Faraday. There is an attraction between Juliet and Sawyer but the attraction is complicated by the presence of Martin Keamey, another passenger on the plane who knows Juliet and seems to have a controlling attachment to her. Sawyer assumes that Keamey is Juliet’s boyfriend.
• There is no Claire abduction. The Others don’t have an interest in Claire or her unborn child Aaron.
• The Island is a sentient intelligence that's torn over the presence of the survivors. Though a part of it didn't want them here or arranged for them to arrive here, there is something about them that intrigues it. So the Island has the Smoke Monster keep the survivors from getting anywhere near the Others’ camp and further parts of the Island while having the Others plant a spy among the passengers (Ethan) to keep an eye on the survivors’ activities.
• Like before, Locke and Boone discover the Hatch and spend time secretly unearthing it and trying to open it up while keeping it a secret from the others.
• Meanwhile, while Jack fights to keep the survivors alive, Keamey is trying to rally the survivors against the threat of Smokey saying that as long as that thing runs free, they are endangered. Tensions are stirred up between Jack and Keamey. Locke offers Jack his support for two reasons. 1) So the survivors won’t get themselves killed in the process of trying to kill Smokey. 2) Smokey shouldn’t be killed because it is a part of the Island. Though Jack may not agree with Locke’s second reason, he appreciates the support nevertheless. Ethan reports this development to the Others’ leader Benjamin Linus.
• Sawyer plays both the sides of Jack and Keamey, not quite sure which of them to trust but is willing to pretend to be a team player or something close to it to up his chances of survival on the island.
• Michael tries to build a raft for him and the others to use to escape from the island. But attempts have made to sabotage the building of the raft, constantly postponing its launch. Some suspicions were thrown on Locke who made it clear that he has no intention of leaving the island. But Walt discovers that the culprit is Juliet. He isn’t mad at her for doing what she did since he come to like the island himself but he wants to ask her why and Juliet cryptically says, “To keep you all alive.”
• Keamey fatally stabs Boone and makes it look Locke did it to postpone any further attempts at opening the Hatch.
• Ethan helps Kate deliver Claire’s baby while Locke goes to Jack for help after finding Boone bleeding out from a stab wound. Jack is too late to save Boone. Shannon blames Locke for Boone’s death and gets drawn into Keamey’s side. Jack also blames Locke for Boone’s death but refuses to let the situation sway to Keamey’s favor.
• When Jack connects the dots about Keamey’s involvement in Boone’s murder, he thinks there is something about the Hatch Keamey doesn’t want the others to know about. So he teams up with Locke to open up the Hatch to find out what it is Keamey is hiding.
• The season ends with the destruction of Smokey and the reveal that the real reason Keamey wanted Smokey dead was to get it out of the way to make contact with another group of survivors of Oceanic 815 heading in the Losties’ direction which may have dangerous men like Keamey. It is also hinted that Keamey is driven by an ulterior agenda which involves the island. Meanwhile, the Hatch is opened, Jack and Locke get inside, and they are confronted by a man who lives inside the Hatch pointing a loaded rifle at them.
• Season 1 will be the only season with flashbacks and there are two functions to those flashbacks. The primary one is to illuminate on the backgrounds of the Oceanic 815 passengers which is why the first season will only feature flashbacks that are the most essential about the characters’ pasts. For example, Locke-centric flashbacks would only cover his history with his con artist biological father, his relationship with Helen and how it ended, and how he ended up in the wheelchair. The secondary function isn’t revealed until the season finale which is when the flashbacks converge on the day Oceanic 815 is about to take off from Sydney. We learn that on that day Keamey and Juliet knew the plane was going to crash before they went onboard it and that the crashing of the plane serves as the beginning of the plan they are in on.

 

[Joe Washington]

What do you guys think?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

This seems to be the core of the story, so I'll start here:

The Island is a sentient intelligence that's torn over the presence of the survivors. Though a part of it didn't want them here or arranged for them to arrive here, there is something about them that intrigues it.

The storyline "engine" is coming from the island, then - the human characters react to the shit the island throws at them. The island powers the story, so its motive must be solid. For it to be "intrigued" just isn't strong enough. If the characters go through hell, and eventually the audience learns it was all just an island playing silly games with them, bleh - that ending would be a stunning let-down.

(This is similar to the situation with BSG - the Cylons' actions kick off the story, so their motives are crucial to the story making emotional sense later on, and the fact that their motives were stupid and poorly thought through really hurt the story.)

So let's say the island is some mystical entity that keeps Earth from falling apart, or conversely, is a sinister entity that wants to destroy the planet. Then its motive for good or ill suddenly becomes far more important, and when it's revealed at the end, the characters helped save the world either by fighting the island or protecting it from idiots like Widmore who were inadvertently threatening it because of their greedy ways, all the trials the characters went through will seem worth it.

The rest of your post consists of plot details that may be a good idea or a bad idea, depending on what the core of your story is. However, I do agree about losing the love quadrangle.

 

[Joe Washington]

The Island does have a motive but having it reveal in Season 1 would be a bit soon.

 

[FormerLurker]

The best motivation for the Island is the one from the original: It Is The Wellspring.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The Island does have a motive but having it reveal in Season 1 would be a bit soon.

Reveal it now. We won't tell.

 

[Joe Washington]

Like I said in the Redoing Lost thread, my AU version of the Island would be that it's acting as a refuge for a handful of humans to survive the apocalypse it predicted long ago. That handful is the Others. But the Island is wondering if the plane-crash survivors are worthy enough to join the Others while the leader of the Others believes the survivors aren't worthy and shouldn't be on the Island at all.